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A TRACT FOR THE TIMES, 



^A 



BY 



X 



REV. PHILIP SOHAFF, T> . D 



1. Cor. VII. '20-22 ; "L?t cTcry man abide in the same calling wherein he was 
called. Art thou called being a servant, care not for it : but if thou may est be fi-ec, 
use it rather. For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's 
freeman : likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ's servant." 




CIIAMBER.^BURri, TA: 

M . K I E r F E R k r O " S CALORIC T K I X T I V T. P R E S r 
KS61. 



Sliifrer^ mt^ i\t ^ihlt. 



A TRACT FOR THE TIMES, 



BY 



REV. PHILIP SCHAFF, D. D. 



1. Cor. VII. 2 -22 : "Let every man abide in the same calling wherein be was 
called. Art thou called being a servant, care not for it : but if thou maycst be free, 
«t8C it rathur. For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord'* 
freeman : likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ's servant." 




CIIAMBERSBUEG, 

M. KIJiFlER & CO'S CALORIC TRINTING TUKSS. 
18C1. 



'On- 



Haoeestown, Md., February 4, 1861. 
Rev. Dr. P. Schaff: 

Dear Sir : — We the undersigned having listened -rith 
profound interest fo your very able and learned sermon, delivered at the 
union meeting in the Lutheran Church last night, in Ilagcrstown, on the sub- 
ject of the Bible view of Slavery, to a very large audience ; and believing 
that the extensive dissemination of such views, at this time, will produce 
great good, we therefore respectfully ask a copy of the same for publicaticu 
in a form for general circulation. 

With Beutiments of the highest esteem and regard we are 
Yours Eespectfully, 



Lewis M. IIarbaugh, 
M. S. Barber, 
D. Weiskl, 
Sol B. Rohbeb, 
Chas. Macgill, 
Geo. Kealiiofee, 
G. W. Smith, 
Alex. Neill, 
D. 11. Wiles, 
Thos. a. Bowles, 
A. K. Syestee, 
JONA. Hagek, 



A. Armstrong, 
W. M. Marshall, 
Jos. Rexch, 
Peter Negley, 
R. II. Alvet, 

B. A. Garlinger, 
Francis M. Darby, 
Isaac Nesbitt, 
David Zeller, 

J. B. McKee, 
W. D. Levy. 



The same discourse in substance was afterv.'ards delivered by invitation in 
the German Reformed church at Mcrcersburg, Pa., and in the Lutheran CoJ- 
lc"-e church at Gettysburg, Pa., and likewise requested for publication. It 
was then written out in this enlarged form and is now offered to the public 
with the hope that, under the blessing of God, it may do all the good which 
its friends desire. 

Theological Seminary, IMercersburg, Pa., March, 18G1. 



.J" SLAVERY AND THE BIBLE. 



-^ THE ORIGIN OF SLAVERY. 

The Bible, which we acknowledge as the infallible 
•source and supreme rule in matters of religion and morals, 
commences with the highest and noblest view of man by 
representing him a-s th>e bearer of the image of God and 
placing him at the head of the whole creation. The divine 
image, whatever it may be besides, necessarily implies the 
idea of personality, that is reason and will, or intelligence 
and freedom. By these inestimable gifts man is far elevated 
above the brute, reflects the glory of his Maker, and is ca- 
pable of communion with Him. 

With this primitive conception and condition of man 
slavery or involuntary and perpetual servitude is incom- 
patible. It has no place in paradise. God created man 
male and female, and thus instituted marriage and the fam- 
ily relation before the fall, but not slaver^-. The only slave 
then could have been Eve, but she was equally the bearer 
of the divine image and the loving and beloved partner of 
Adam. In the language of a distinguished English com- 
mentator, "the woman was made of a rib out of the side 
of man ; not made out of his head, to top him — not out of 
bis feet, to be trampled upon by him — but out of his side, 
to be equal witb him — from under his arm, to be protected 
— and from near his heart to be beloved." 

But man fell from his original state by the abuse of his 
freedom in an act of disobedience, and was consequently 
driven from paradise. Sin is the first and worst kind of 
slavery, and the fruitful source of every other intellectual, 
moral, and physical degradation. In this sense every sin- 
ner is a slave to his own appetites and passions, and can on- 
ly attain to true freedom by the Christian salvation. Hence 
the Saviour says: "Whosoever committeth sin is the serv- 



ant (doidos, slave) of sin.... If the Son shall make yoir 
free, ye shall he free indeed." (John viii. 34-36.) 

Slavery then takes its rise in sin, and more particularly in 
war and the law of brute force. Lust of power, avarice and 
cruelty were the original motives, kidnapping, conquest in 
war, and purchase by money were the original methods, 
of depriving men of their personal freedom and degrading 
them to mere instruments for the selfish ends of others. 

But Avhen the institution was once generallj^ introduced, 
most slaves were born such and were innocently inherited 
like any other kind of proj)erty. Slaveholding became an 
undisputed right of every freeman and was maintained and 
propagated as an essential part of the family among all the 
ancient nations. In many cases also freemen voluntarily 
sold themselves into slavery from extreme poverty, or lost 
therr freedom in consequence of crime. 

THE CUESE or NOAH. 

Slavery, like despotism, war, and all kinds of oppression, 
existed no doubt long before the deluge, which was sent 
upon the earth because it was "filled with violence" (Gen. 
vi. 11).. But it is not expressly mentioned till after the flood, 
in. the remarkable prophecy of Noah, uttered more than four 
thousand years ago and reaching in its fulfilment, or at 
least in its applicability, even to our time and country. 
Bishop Newton, in his "Dissertations on the Prophecies," 
calls it "the history of the world in epitom.e." it is re- 
corded in Genesis ix. 25-27, and in its metrical form ac- 
cording to the Hebrew reads as follows : 

25. " Cursed be Canaan ; 

A servant of servants ''■ sliall he be unto liis bretliren. 

2G. Blessed be Jehovah, the God of 8hem ; 

And Canaan shall be a servant unto them. 
27. God shall enlarge Japhetli, 



* °^1?.? "'??, eblied abhadim, i. e., the meanest or loTvcst of servarfs ; a 
Hebrew form of intensifying the idea, as in the expressions king of king$^ 
hoJy of holies, soncj of songs. 



And he (Japbeth) shall dwell in the tents of Shorn ; 
And Canaan shall be a servant unto them."t 

Noah, a preacher of righteousness before the flood, speaks 
here as a far-seeing mspired prophet to the new world af- 
ter the flood. He pronounces a curse thrice repeated upon 
one of his grandsons, and a blessing upon two of his sons^ 
yet with regard not so much to their individual as their 
representative character, and looking to the future posterity 
of the three patriarchs of the human family. Ham, the 
father of Canaan, represents the idolatrous and servile races; 
Shem, the Israelites who worshipped Jehovah, the only 
true and living God ; Japheth, those gentiles, who by their 
contact with Sham were brought to a knowledge of the 
true religion. The curse was occasioned by gross in- 
decency and profane irreverence to the agediToah. It was 
inflicted upon Canaan, the youngest of the four sons of 
Ham, either because he was, according to an ancient Jew- 
ish tradition, the real offender, and Ham merely the repor- 
ter of the fact, or more probably because he made sport of 
his grandfather's shame when seen and revealed by Ham 
to his brothers, and was the principal heir of the irrever- 
ence and impiety of his father. But Ham was also pun- 
ished in his son who was most like him, as he had sinned 
against his father.* The whole posterity of Canaan was 
included in the curse because of their vices and wickedness 
(Levit. xviii. 2-4, 25), which God foresaw, yet after all with 
a merciful design as to their ultimate destiny. 



t ""^i ''??, ehhed lamo, a servant to tliem, i. e., either to Shem and his pos- 
terity (as Hengstenberg takes it), or better to both Shem and Japheth which 
agrees best with "unto his brethren" v. 25. The English version, Luther and 
many others translate in v. 26. and 27. "his (Shem's) servant," andEwald (He- 
brew Gi"ammar p. 459) asserts that amo may sometimes denote the singular, 
referring to Ps. xi. 7 ; Job xxii. 2 ; Deut. xxxii, 2 and Is. xl. 15. But Heng- 
stenberg (in the second German edition of his Christology of the 0. T. I. 32) 
maintains that amo, like am, of which it is only a fuller poetical form, signi- 
fies always the plural. 

* Some manuscripts of the Septuagint or Greek translation of the Hebrevr 
Scriptures read ''Ham" for Cawaaw, and the Arabic version "the father of 
Canaan," in the three verses of this prophecy. 



The malediction of Noah was first fulfilled, on a largo 
national scale, about eight hundred jears after its de- 
livery, when the Israelites, the favorite descendants of 
Shem, subdued the Cauaanites, under the leadership of 
Joshua and under divine direction, and made some of 
their tribes "bondmen and hewers of wood and draw- 
ers of water for the house of God" (Joshua ix. 23-27). 
It was further fulfilled, when Solomon subdued the scat- 
tered remnants of those tribes (1 Kings ix. 20, 21 ; 2 
Chron. viii. 7-9). Thus Canaan came under the rod of 
Shem. But he was also to be a servant to Japheth ("unto 
his brethren,'' v. 25, "unto them,'' v. 26 and 27). Under 
this view the prediction was realized in the successive do- 
minion of the Persians, Greeks, and Romans, all descend- 
ants of Japheth, over the Pheniciaus and Carthaginians, 
who belong to the posterity of Canaan. The blessing of 
Noah was likewise strikingly fulfilled in the subsequent 
course of history reaching down to the introduction of 
Christianity. Shem was the bearer of the true religion be- 
fore Christ. Japheth dwelled in the tents of Shem, liter- 
ally, by conquering his territory under the Greeks and Ro- 
mans, and spiritually, by the conversion of his vast posteri- 
ty to the Christian religion which proceeded from the bo- 
som of Shem. It is true here in the highest sense that 
the conquered gave laws to the conquerors. 

But in point of fact both the curse and the blessing of 
Noah extend still further and justify a wider historical ap- 
plication. The curse of involuntary servitude, which in 
the text is confined to the youngest son of Canaan because 
of his close contact with the Israelites, has aftected nearly 
the whole of the posterity of Ham, or those unfortunate 
African races which for many centuries have groaned and 
are atill groaning under the despo-tic rule of the Romans, 
the Saracens, the Turks, and even those Christian nations 
who engaged in the iniquity of the African slave trade. 
Whether we connect it with this ancient prophecy or not, 
it is simply a fact which no one can deny, that the negro to 
this day is a servant of servants in our own midst. Japh- 
eth, on the other hand, the progenitor of half the human 



-^I 



race, who possesses a part of Asia and the wliole of Europe, 
is still extending his posterity and territory in the westward 
course of empire, <and holds Ilam in bondage faraway from 
his original home and final destination. 

Slavery then is represented from the start as a punish- 
ment and a curse and is continued as such from generation 
to generation for these four thousand years, falling with 
special severity upon the African race, and involving the 
innocent with the guilty. A dark veil still hangs over this 
dispensation of Providence, v/hich will be lifted only by the 
future pages of history. God alone, in his infinite wisdom 
and mercy, can and will settle the negro question by turn- 
ing even a curse into a blessing and by overruling the wrath 
of man for his own glory. All his punishments have a 
disciplinary object and remedial character. The prophecy 
of Noah, it is true, has no comfort for poor Canaan, and 
no blessing for Ham. But David already looked forward 
to the time when " Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands 
unto God" (Ps. Ixviii. 31). The new dispensation gives 
us more light and hope and solves the mysteries of the old. 
The Gospel of Christ who praised the faith of a daughter 
of Canaan (Matth. xv. 28) and who died for all races, clas- 
ses and conditions of man, authorizes us to look forward 
to the ultimate salvation of the entire posterity of Ham '^ 
through the agency of Japheth and the severe but whole- 
some discipline of slavery. As Japheth dwelled in the 
eastern tents of Shem and was converted to his faith, so we 
may say that Ham dwells in the western tents of Japheth 
and is trained in America for his final deliverance from the 
ancient curse of bondage by the slow but sure operation of 
Christianity both upon him and his master, and for a noble 
mission to the ent!re mysterious continent of Africa. 

PATRIARCHAL SLAVERY. 

We next meet slavery as an established domestic insti- 
tution among the patriarchs of the Jewish nation, as will 
appear iVom the following passages : 

Gen. xii. 16 : " And Abram had sheep, and oxen, and he-asses, and 
men-eervants, and maid-servants, and she-asses and camels." 



Gen. xiv. 14 : " And when Abram heard that his brother was taken 
captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, thre* 
hundred and eighteen." 

Gon. xvii. 23: "And Abraham took Iwhmael his son, and all thai 
v.'ere born in his house (slaves by birth), and all that were bought 
with his money (slaves by purchase), every male among the men of 
Abraham's house ; and circumcised the flesh of their fore-skin in th« 
selfsame day, as God had said unto him." 

Gen. XX. 14: "And Abimelech took sheep, and oxen, and men- 
servants, and women-servants, and gave them unto Abraham, and 
restored him Sarah his wife." 

Gen. xxiv. 35 : " And the Lord hath blessed my master (Abraham) 
greatly : and he is become great : and he hath given him flocks, and 
herds, and silver, and gold, and men-servants and maid-servant» 
and camels, and asses." 

Gen. xxvi. 14: "He (Isaac) had possession of flocks, and posses- 
sion of herds, and groat store of servants: and the Philistines envied 
him." 

Gen. XXX. 43 : " And the man (Jacob) increased exceedingly, and 
had much cattle, and maid-servants, and men-servants, and camels. 
And asses." 

Gen. xxxii. 5: "And I (Jacob) have oxen, and asses, flocks, and 
men-servants, and women-servants." 

Compare Job i. 3*, "His substance also was seven thousand sheep, 
and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five 
hundred she-asses, and a very great household," (literally : very many 
servants; German: grossc Diencrschaft.) 

The Hebrew term employed here and throughout the Ohl 
Testament generally for servants,* is not necessarily de- 
grading, like our slave ; on the contrary chhed means orig- 
inally laborer, loorker, and work was no disgrace among a 
people whose kings and prophets were called from the flock 
and the plough; yea, it is used in innumerable passages in 
the most honorable sense and applied to messengers of 
kings, to angels, to Moses, the prophets and the highest 
officers of the theocracy, in their relation to God. But in 
its usual literal sense it is universally understood to mean 



• "^???, ebhed^hoTCi the verb "^^V, abhad, first to labor ; then lo serve, either 
man or God), plural D''"??V, aiAac?m, for male servants; and ^P^^, shiphcha^ 
plural n''npp'j shephachoth, or ^p?*, amah, and ^'^^''^^ amahoih, for female Bcr- 
vanta. The latter terms express the close connection with tlie family. 



9 

ho7id servants in distinction from hired or voluntary servants, 
who were comparatively rare among ancient nations and 
are but seldom mentioned in the Old Testament.* The 
slaves hero spoken of were cither born in the house (called 
jclide baidh) or purchased by money [milcnaih chescph, Gen. 
xvii. 23), and owned in large numbers by the patriarchs 
and the patriarchal Job without any sense of guilt or im- 
propriety on their side, and without a mark of disapproba- 
tion on the side of God. Their usual enumeration and col- 
location with sheep, oxen, asses and camels, although less 
degrading than Aristotle's definition of a slave as a "liv- 
ing tool," or "animated possession," f is very oiFensive to 
our modern ear and to our Christian taste, and shows the 
diliereuce between the Old Testament and theJSTew, where 
they are never mentioned in such connection. lu one pas- 
sage the servants are even put between the he-asscs and the 
she-asses, in another between the cattle and the camels, and 
in a third between the gold and the camels. 

But we have no right at all to infer from this fact that the 
patriarchs regarded and treated their servants no better than 
their favorite animals. Their whole character and religion 
justifies the opposite conclusion. They bought, but, as far 
as the record goes, they never sold any of their slaves. 
There is no trace of a slave trafhc in the 01d,Testament. 
The patriarchal servitude was free from the low mercenary 
aspect, the spirit of caste and the harsh treatment, which 
characterized the same institution among all the heathen 
nations. It was of a purely domestic character and tem- 
pered by kindness, benevolence and a sense of moral and 
religious equality before God. This appears from the high 



* The Hebrew term for hired SGryant is ">''?p, Ex. xii. -15 compared -with 
44 ; xxii. 14 ; Levit. xix. 13 ; Deut. xxiv. 14 ; Job. vii. 2. Josephus (An- 
tiquities iv. 8, 38) explains the Jewish law as to lured servants thus : " Lot 
it be always remembered, that we ai-e not to defraud a poor man of his wao-es, 
as being sensible that God has allotted that wages to him instead of land and 
other possessions ; nay, this payment is not at all to be delayed, but to be 
made that very day, since God is not willing to deprive the laborer of tl)« 
immediate use of what he has labored for." 

\ "Opyavov fuoi/, or Krniia tfi\]jvX°v- 



10 

confidotice wliicb Abraham reposed in Eliezer (Gen. xv. 2; 
xxiv. 2 ff.), and all those slaves whom he entrusted with 
.arms (xlv. 14 ; comp. xxxii. G ; xxxiii. 1), and still more 
from the significant fact that he circumcised them (Gen. 
xvii. 23, 27), and thus made them partakers of the bless- 
ings and privileges of the covenant of Jehovah by divine 
direction (v. 12, 13). 

JEWISH SLAVERY. 

Between the patriarchal and the Mosaic period the Jews 
were themselves reduced to hard involuntary servitude in 
Egypt. The introduction to the ten commandments re- 
minds them of their merciful deliverance "out of the land 
of Egypt, out of the house of bondage," that they might 
be grateful for so great a mercy and show their gratitude 
by cheerful obedience to his will, and merciful conduct 
towards their servants (comp. Deut. v. 15 ; xv. 15). 

Moses, or God through him neither established nor abo- 
lished slavery; he authorized and regulated it as an ancient 
domestic and social institution, which could not be dis- 
pensed with at that time, but he also so modified and hu- 
manized the same as to raise it far above the character of 
slavery among the gentiles, even the higlily cultivated 
Greeks and Eomans. — The moral law which is embodied 
in the decalogue, mentions "men-servants and maid-ser- 
vants" twice, but evidently and most wisely in such gen- 
eral terras and connections as to be equally applicable to 
hired servants and bond servants. The fourth commandment 
protects the religious rights of the servants by securing to 
them the blessings of the Sabbath day ; the tenth com- 
mandment guards the rights of the master against the pas- 
sion and cupidity of his neighbor. 

The civil law makes first an important distinction between 
the Hebrew and the Gentile servants. It regarded freedom 
as the normal and proper condition of the Israelite, and 
prohibited his reduction to servitude except in two cases, 
cither for theft, when unable to make full restitution (Ex. 
xxii. 3), or in extreme poverty, wdien he might sell himself 
(Levit. XXV. 39). Cruel creditors sometimes forced insolv- 



11 

ent debtors into servitude (2 Kings iv. 1 ; Is. 1. 1 ; Nehem. 
V. 5; comp. Matth. xviii. 25), but this was an abuse which 
is nowhere authorized. The Hebrew' servant moreover 
was not to be treated like an ordinary bondman, and re- 
gained his freedom, without price, and with an outfit (Deut. 
XV. 14), after six years of service, unless he preferred from 
attachment or other reasons to remain in bondage to his 
master. The remembrance of Israel's bondage of Egypt 
and his merciful deliverance by tlie hand of the Lord, 
should inspire every Israelite with kindness to his bond- 
men. The jubilee, or every fiftieth year, when the whole 
theocracy was renewed, gave liberty to all slaves of 
Hebrew descent without distinction, whether they had 
served six years or not, and made them landed proprie- 
tors by restoring to them the possessions of their fa- 
thers. Consequently the law, in permitting the Hebrew to 
be sold, merely suspended his freedom for a limited period, 
guarded him during the same against bad treatment, and 
provided for his ultimate emancipation. This is clear from 
the principal passages bearing on the subject. 

" If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve : and in 
the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by him- 
self, he shall go out by himself; if he were married, then his wife 
shall go out with him. If his master have given him a wife, and she 
have born him sons or daughters ; the wife and her children shall be 
her master's, and he shall go out by himself. And if the servant 
shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children ; I will 
not go out free : then his master shall bring him to the door, or unto 
the door post ; and his master shall bore his ear through with an av,-l ; 
and he shall serve him for ever*." Exod. xxi. 2-G. 

" And if thy bi'other that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be 
sold vmto thee ; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond-ser- 
vant ; but as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with 
thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubilee : and then shall he 
depart from thee, both he and his children witli him, and shall re- 
turn unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall 
lie return. For they are my servants which I brought forth out of tho- 
land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen. Thou shalt not 



* i. e., become permanent and inheritable property like the slaves of 
heathen origin (Lev. xxv. 46) ; or, as the Jewish doctors take it, till the year 
of jubilee. Such limitation seems to be justified by Lev. xxv. 41, 10. 



12 

mle over him with rigor: but shalt foar thy God." Levit. xsv. of^ 
43. Comp. Dcuteron. xv. 12-1J<. 

"This is the word that came unto Jeremiah from the Lord, after 
that the Iving Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people 
whicli were at Jerusalem, to i:>roclaim liberty unto them ; that every 
man should let his man-servant, and every man his maid-servant, 
being an Hebrew or a Ilebrewess, go free ; that none should serve 
himself of them, to wit, of a Jew his brother," Jerem. xxxiv. 8, 9. 

Concerning the heathen hondmeu who constituted the 
great majority of slaves among the Hebrews, thx3 law was 
more severe, and attached them permanently to their mas- 
ter and his posterity. 

" Both thy bondmen and they bondmaids, which thou shalt have, 
•shall be of the heathen that are round about you : of them shall yf. 
buy bondmen and bondmaids. Moreover of the children of the 
strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of 
their families that are with you, which they begat in your land : and 
they shall be your possession. And ye shall take them as an in- 
heritaaice for your children after yon to inherit them for a jDossession ; 
they shall be your bondmen for ever : but over your brethren the 
cliildren of Israel, j'e shall not rule one over another with rigor." 
Levit. XXV. 44-4G. 

But the Mosaic dispensation nowhere degraded even the 
heathen slave to mere property, or a thing, as the Roman 
law. It regarded and treated him as a moral and religious 
being, admitted him to the blessings of the covenant by 
circumcision {Gen. xvii. 12, 13, 23, 27 ; Exod. xii. 44), se- 
cured him the rest of the sabbath and the festival days and 
other religious privileges, and protected him against the pas- 
sion and cruelty of the master and restored him to freedom 
In case he was violentl}^ injured in eye or tooth, that is, 
according to the spirit of the law, in any member whatever. 
Finally it numbered kipnapping, or forcible reduction of a 
freeman, especially an Israelite, to servitude in time of 
peace, among the blackest crimes, and punished it with 
death. Take the following passages which refer to all slaves: 

" If a man smite his servant, or his maid with a rod, and he die 
under his hand ; he shall be sm-ely punished. Notwithstanding if 
he continue a day or two, he .shall not be punished ; for he is liis 
money." Exod. xxi. 20, 21. 

" If a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, tha,t 
it perish, he shall let him go free for his e^'o's sake. And if he Bmit« 
9 



IS 

out his servant's tooth, he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake." 
Exod. xxi. 26, 27. 

"The seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God : in it thou shalfc 
not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-ser- 
vant, nor thy maid-servant," etc., Exod. xx. 10. 

. . , " that thy nnan-servant and thy maid-servant may rest as 
well as thou. And remember that thou wast a servant in the land 
of Egypt," etc. Deut. v. 14, 15. Comp. Deut. xvi. II, 12, 14 with 
reference to the annual festivals. 

" And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found 
in his hand, he shall surely be put to death." Exod. xxi. IG. 

" If a man be found stealing any of his brethren of the children of 
Israel, and maketh merchandize of him, or selleth him ; then that 
thief shall die ; and thou shalt put evil away from among you." 
Deut. xxiv. 7. 

Such guarantees contrast very favorably with the Eoman 
slave code which knew of no civil and religions rights of the 
slave, reduced him to the level of mere property and gave 
the master authority to torture him for evidence and to 
put him to death. Hence v/e never read of slave insurrec- 
tions among the Jews, as among the Greeks and Eomans. 
The difierence in treatment was the natural result of a dif- 
ferent theory. For the Old Testament teaches the unity 
of the human race, which is favorable to general equality 
before the law, while heathen slavery rested on the opposite 
doctrine of the essential inferiority of all barbarians to the 
Greeks and Romans and their constitutional unfitness for 
the rights and privileges of freemen. 

If we consider the low and degraded condition of the 
idolatrous heathen tribes, with whom the Jews in their 
early history came into contact, we have a right to think 
that slavery was an actual benefit to them and a training 
school from barbarian idolatry and licentiousness to the 
knowledge and worship of the true God. This would ex- 
plain the more easily a passage, which is sometimes falsely 
quoted by Abolitionists as a conclusive argument against 
the fugitfve slave law: 

" Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which is es- 
caped from his master unto thee : he shall dwell with thee, even 
among you, in that place which he shall choose in one of thy gates, 
where it liketh him best : thou shalt not oppress him." Deut. xxiii 
15, 10, 



14 

This can, of course, not be understood as applying to 
all slaves iuJiscriniinatoly, without involving the law in 
glaring self-contradiction; for the servants of the Jews were 
protected by law, like any other property (Exod. xx. 17), 
they had to be restored, if lost (Deut xxii. 4 ; cornp 1 Kings 
II. 39, 40), and jDassed as an inheritance from parents to 
children (Levit. xxv, 46) ; but it must refer, as all good com- 
mentators hold, to foreign slaves onlj^, who escaped from 
heathen masters to the boundaries of the theocracy, and 
Nvho, if returned, would have been punished with cruel 
tortures or certain death. Extradition, in such cases, would 
have been an act of inhumanity repugnant to the spirit of 
the Jewish religion. Such unfortunate fugitives found an 
asylum in Israel, as they did even in heathen temples, and 
since Constantine in every Christian church. 

From all that has been said then thus far, we may con- 
clude that, according to the Old Testament, the institution 
of involuntary and perpetual servitude dates from after the 
fall and first appears as a punishment and curse ; that it 
was known and practised by the patriarchs ; recognized 
and protected by the Mosaic legislation, but also softened 
and guarded against various abuses ; and that everj' re- 
turning jubilee made an end to Jewish servitude. It does 
not appear, indeed, that slaves of heathen descent were in- 
cluded in the blessing of jubilee. Their exclusion would 
liave to be explained on the ground of the necessary par- 
ticularism of the old economy, which was intended merely 
as a national training school for the universal religon of 
the Gospel. But on the other hand, the fact that all slaves 
in Jewish families seem to have been circumcised (Gen- 
xvii. 12, 13, 23, 27), at least if they wished it (comp. Exod. 
xii. 44), and were thus incorporated into the Jewish church, 
seems to justify a more general application of the blessing 
of jubilee, to all slaves, or at least to all who wer(f circum- 
cised, whether of Jewish descentor not. The language m 
Levit. xxv. 10 makes no exceptions: "And yeshall hallow 
the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land 
unto all ike inhahitanis thereof : it shall be a jubilee unto you; 



15 

and 3'e sLall return evei-y man unto his possession, and ye 
shall return every man unto his family." At all events the 
jubilee Avas a type of that "acceptable year of the Lord" 
(Is. Ixi. 1 ; Luke iv. 19) which gave spiritual deliverance 
to all, and will be finally realized in the restoration of all 
men to their original dignity, freedom and equality, through 
the Christian salvation from every form of bondage. 

GREEK AND ROMAN SLAVERY. 

Before v/e proceed to explain the relation of the New 
Testament to slaverj-, it may be well to cast a glance at 
the extent and character of this institution among those 
highly civilized heathen nations, among which Christianity 
was iirs^ established. 

The ancient republics of Greece and Eomc had no idea 
C;p' of general and inalienable rights of men. They consisted 
in the rule of a small minority of freemen over a mass of 
foreigners and slaves. The Greeks and Romans looked 
with aristocratic contempt upon all other nations as bar- 
barians and unfit for freedom. Their philosophers and law- 
givers regarded slavery as the natural, normal and perpet- 
ual condition of society and assumed a constitutional or es- 
sential difference between the free-born and the slaves. 
^Aristotle calls a doulos or slave "an animated tool, just as 
a tool is a soulless slave." Occasionally slaves distinguished 
themselves by great talent or some special merit, and were 
then used as teachers, or were emancipated, or they bought 
their liberty. But these were exceptions, which confirmed 
the rule. The great mass remained in a degraded and 
wretched condition, whether they belonged to the State as 
the Helots in Sparta, or to individuals. An active slave 
trade was carried on, particularly in the Euxine, the eastern 
provinces, the coast of Africa, Britain, and in the city of 
Rome where human beings from every tongue and clime 
were continually offered for sale, generally as nature made 
them and with a scroll around their neck, on which their 
good and bad qualities were specified. 

Theliomans made no distinction between race and color 



16 

iu this respect. All captives of war, wliether Scythians, 
Phrygians, JSTubians, Jews, Gauls, Spaniards, Britons, 
Germans, also insolvent debtors and criminals were gener- 
ally sohl into slaver3^ The distinguished Latin poets Ter- 
CDtiu.% and probably Plautus, the former an African, the 
latter an Italian by birth, were originally slaves, but ac- 
quired their freedom by their talents and industry ; and 
Horace, who moved in the highest circles of the Roman 
aristocracy, descended from a freedman. The Jewish syn- 
agogue at Rome consisted mostly of freedmen. During 

the Jewish war, Josephus tells us, ninety seven thousand 

^-^^ Jews were made captives and either sold to individuals as 
cheap as horses, or condemned as slaves of the State to 
hard work in the Egyptian mines, or put to death. 

Slavery extended over every province and embraced, ac- 
cording to Gibbon's low estimate, sixty millions, or at least 
one half of the entire population of the empire under the 
reign of Claudius ; but according to more recent calcula- 
tions the slaves outnumbered the citizens three to one. 
For in Attica, the classical spot of Greece, there were, 
three hundred years before Christ, four hundred thousand 
slaves (who were counted per head, like cattle) to only 
twenty one thousand free citizens (exclusive, however, of 
women and minors), and ten thousand foreign residents. 
In Sparta the disproportion seems to have been still great- 
er, and to keep down their numbers the Helots w^ere some- 
times cruelly and treacherously massacred hy thousands. 
Many wealthy Romans possessed from ten to twenty thous- 
and slaves for mere ostentation. Roman ladies of rank and 
fashion kept as many as two hundred for their toilet alone. 
The slaves did all kind of work iu the house, the shop, 
and the kitchen. The Latin lano'uaoie has a 2:reat many 
names for the various classes into which they were divided 
according to their occupation.* 

* Those for instance wlio attended to the table alone, were subdivided into 
pistores, cogui, furtorc-t, obsonatorcs, stiuclores, scissores, pocillalorcs ; those 
who were employed for tlic wardrobe and toilet, into vcsliarii, tcxtorss, 
tonsores, ornalrices, (.inijloncs, nnctores, balneatorcs, etc. etc. 



(XT' 



17 

In the eyes of the Roman law till the time of the Auto- 
nines the slaves were in the fullest sense of the term the 
property of the master and reduced to the level of the 
brute. A distinguished writer on civil law thus describes 
their condition: "The slaves were in a much worse state 
than any cattle whatsoever. They had no head in the 
State, no name, no title, no register ; they were not capa- 
ble of being injured ; they had no heirs and therefore could 
make no will ; they were not entitled to the rights of mat- 
rimony, and ther'efore had no relief in case of adultery ; 
nor were they proper objects of cognation and affinity, but 
of quasi-cognation only ; they could be sold, transferred, or 
pawned, as goods or personal estate, for goods they were, 
and as such thej^ were esteemed; they might be tortured 
for evidence, punished at the discretion of their lord, and 
even Y)ut to death by his authority ; together with many 
other civil incapacities which I have no room to enumer- 
ate." Cato the elder expelled his old and sick slaves out 
of house and home. Hadrian, one of the most humane of 
the emperors, willfully destroyed the eye of one of his 
slaves with a pencil. Roman ladies punished their wait- 
ers with sharp iron instruments for the most trifling 
offences, while attending half dressed to their toilet. Such 
legal degradation and cruel treatment had the worst effect 
upon the character of the slaves- They are described by 
the ancient writers as mean, cowardly, abject, false, vora- 
cious, intemperate, voluptuous, also hard and cruel, when 
placed over others. A proverb prevailed in the Roman 
empire : "As many slaves as many enemies." Hence the 
constant danger of servile insurrections which more than 
once brought the republic to the brink of ruin and seemed 
to justify the severest measures in self-defense. 

It is true, self-interest, natural kindness, and education 
had their due effect even among the heathen and prompted 
many masters to take proper care of their slaves. Seneca 
and Plutarch gave excellent advice which tended to miti- 
gate the evil wherever it was carried out. Legislation also 
began to improve in the second century and transferred 

2 



18 

the power over the life of the slave from the master to the 
magistrate. But at that time the humanizing influence of 
Christianity already made itself felt even upon its enemies 
and impregnated the atmosphere of public opinion. 

Koman slavery then was far worse than Jewish servitude. 
It regarded and treated the slaves as chatties and things, 
■while the latter still respected them as persons, provided 
for their moral and religious wants, and cheered them with 
the hope of delivi3rance in the year of jubilee. 

Justice as well as due regard for our national honor and 
the influence of Christianity requires us also to place the 
Roman system of slavery far below the AmericaUj although 
the latter no doubt borrowed many obnoxious and revolt- 
ing statutes from the Roman slave-code. Roman slavery 
extended over the whole empire and embraced more than 
one half of its subjects, American slavery is confined to the 
Southern States and to one eighth of our population ; the 
former made no distinction between race and color, the 
latter is based on the inferiority of the African race ; Rome 
legalized and protected the foreign slave trade, the United 
States long since prohibited it as piracy and thus placed the 
stigma of condemnation upon the original source of uegro- 
elavery ; the former treated the slaves as mere property, the 
latter distinctly recognize and protect them as men ; the 
former cared nothing for the souls of the poor slaves, while 
the latter can never deny altogeibor the restraining, hu- 
manizing and ennobling influence of the Christian mljgion 
upon the master, nor refuse its benefits and privileges to 
the slave. 

THE NEW TESTAMENT AND SLAVERY. 

Such was the system of slavery when Christ appeared, 
to deliver the world from the bondage of sin and death and 
to work out a salvation for all races, classes and conditions 
of men. 

The manner in which Christianity dealt with an institu- 
tion so universally prevalent in its worst forms and so inti- 
mately interwoven with the whole private and public life 



19 

in the Roman empire, is a strong proof of its practical wis- 
dom and divine origin. It accomplished what no other re- 
ligion has even attempted before or since. Without inter- 
fering with slavery as a political and oeconomical question, 
without encouraging any revolution or agitation, without 
denouncing the character or denying the rights of the slave- 
holder, or creating discontent among the slaves, Vvdthout 
disturbing the peace of a single family, without any ap- 
peals to the passions and prejudices of men on the evils 
and abuses of slavery, without requiring or even suggest- 
ing immediate emancipation, in one word, without chang- 
ing the outward and legal relation between the two parties, 
but solemnly enforcing the rights and duties arising from 
it to both: Christ and the apostles, nevertheless, from with- 
in by purely spiritual and peaceful means, by teaching the 
common origin and common redemption, the true dignity, 
equality and destiny of men, by inculcating the principles of 
universal justice and love, and by .raising the most degra- 
ded and unfortunate classes of society to virtue and piety, 
produced a radical moral reformation of the system and 
prepared the only eftectual way for its gradual legitimate 
and harmless extinction. The Christian Church followed 
this example and dealt with the system of slavery in the 
same spirit wherever it found it as an established fact. Any 
other method would have either effected nothing at all, or 
done more harm than good. An attempt at sudden eman- 
cipation with such abundant materials for servile wars 
would have thrown the world into hopeless confusion and 
brought dissolution and ruin upon the empire and the 
cause of Christianity itself. 

The relation of the Gospel to slavery wherever it still 
exists, remains the sarne to day as it was in the age of the 
apostles. The ]S"ew Testament was written for all ages and 
conditions of society ; it knows no Mason and Dixon's line, 
and may be as profitably read and as fully practiced in 
South Carolina as in Massachusetts. 

The position of the New Testament is neither anti-slavery, 
nor pro-slavery in our modern sense of the term, but rises 



20 

above all partizan views. It nowhere establishes or abol- 
ishes the iiistitntiou of slavery, as little as monarchy or any 
other form of government; it neither sanctions nor con- 
demns it ; it never meddles with its political and financial 
aspects and leaves the system as to its policy and profita- 
bleness to the secular rulers. But it recognizes, tolerates 
and ameliorates it as an existing and then univcrsall}' es- 
tablished fiict ; it treats it under its moral bearings and en- 
joins the duties aud responsibilities of masters and servants; 
it corrects its abuses, cures the root of the evil and pro- 
vides the only rational and practical remedy for its ultimate 
extinction wherever it can be abolished legitimately and 
with benefit to both parties. Yet, in profound and far- 
seeing wisdom, it does all this in such a manner that its 
teachings and admonitions retain their full force and ap- 
plicabilit}', though every trace of involuntary and perpetu- 
al servitude should disappear from the earth. 

Hence the unlearned reader of the New Testament sel- 
dom observes its allusions to slavery, and may read the 
Gospels aud Epistles without dreaming of the fact, that at 
the time of their composition more than one half of thxi 
human race was kept in literal bondage. Our popular 
Versions have properly and wisely avoided the words davc- 
holder aud slave — like the framers of the American Con- 
stitution — and have mostly substituted the words mastenxud 
servant, which are equally applicable to a free state of so- 
ciety, or the general distinctions of superior and inferior, ru- 
ler and subject, which will continue to the end of time. It 
must be admitted, however, that the term servant, as its 
etymology from the Latin suggests, was originally em- 
ployed in the menial sense and has acquired a noblei- mean- 
ing under the influence of Christianity upon all domestic 
and social relations. 

The Greek language has a number of terms for the va- 
rious kinds of servants, six or seven of which occur in the 
ISTew Testament.* We will explain three as having a bear- 
ing upon the present discussion. 



* Stpiix-oji/, therapon, translated servant [miniiiter -would be better, to i1is(in- 



21 

1) misthios and misthotos mean a Idred servant or Iwding, 
and are so translated in the five passages of the New Testa- 
ment where they occur. Thcj may be slaves and hired 
out by their masters, or they may not. 

2) doulos is more frequently used thafi all otlier terms 
put together. We find it, if we made no mistake in count- 
ing, one hundred and twenty three times, namely seventy 
three times in the Gospels, three times in the Acts, thirty 
three times in the Epistles, and fourteen times in the 
Apocalypse.* It is uniformly translated servant in our 
English Bible, except in seven instances in the Epistles 
and in Revelation, where it is rendered either ^o?m/ or hond- 
man.-\^ Doidos (originally an adjective, hound, from the 
verb deo, to bind), like the Latin servus, means properly a 
band servant, or a slave, especially one by birth, and is op- 
posed to eleulheros, free-born, or freed, made free .'I Yet like 

guish it from doulos'), occurs but once, and then of Moses, in an honorable 
sense, Hebr. iii. 5 ; h-Kipirris, hjpereies, generally translated officer, sometimes 
sarvant, or minister, occurs several times in the Gospels and Acts, and once 
in the Epistles (1 Cor. ir. 1) ; oidKovo;, diakonos, which the Common Versioa 
mostly renders minister, sometimes servant, and when used in its official sense, 
deacon; jjAaSiio; find nia^cjr 6;, misthios, misthotos (corresponding to the Hebrew 
'i'?"^") a /ii>c(^ servant; SovXos, doulos (see above); oiKirm, oiketes,s, domestic doulos 
or household servant and so translated in Acts x. 7; iratstpais, often translated 
servant, sometimes child, the leas^t ignominious term for slave, and lather a 
title of endearment like the Latin /)««• and the English boy. 

* Besides the masculine Sov\oi, the feminine Sov\ri occurs three times, twice 
of the Virgin Jlary, the handmaid of the Lord (Liake i. S8, 48, and in a more 
general application Acts ii 18) ; the neuter dov\ov twice (Rom. vi. ]9: Yield 
your members servants to righteousness) ; the noun 6ov\tia five times and is 
uniformly rendered bondage; the verb 6ov\cv<jd twenty five times, generally 
renderod to serve, sometimes to be in bondage; and the transitive verb iovXOoi, 
to bring into bondage, to enslave, eight times. 

f namely 1 Cor. xii. 13 ; GaL iii. 28 ,- Eph. vi. 8 ; Col. iii. 11 ; Rev. vi. 15 ; 
siii. IR ; xix. 13. 

X Trench, in his little work on the Synonyms of the Kcio Testament, N. York 
cd. 1857, p. 53, defines iovln; as "one in a permanent relation of servitude to 
another, and (hat altogether apart from any ministration to that other at the 
present moment rendered ; but the S«pa?r&)i/ is the performer of present ser- 
vices, without respect to the fact, whether as a freeman or as a slave he 
renders them; and thus there goes constantly with the word the sense of on« 
whose services are tenderer, nobler, freer than those of the 6ov\o;." Compare 
also J. Thcod. Yomcl, Sgnonymisches Wocrterbuch, Francf. 1819, p. 78, 7D and 
218, 219. 



22 

the Hebrew chhed, of vvLich it is tlie Greek equivalent in 
tlie New Testament, it is not necessarily degrading, but 
simply a term of government and may signify a subject 
from the highest to the lowest ranks. Ammonius, an an- ■ 
cient writer on Greek synonyms, of the fourth century, 
gives the word this general sense," and the Greeks called 
the Persians douloi as subjects of an absolute monarch. 
The Bible frequently uses the word of the highest and 
noblest kind of service, the voluntar}^ service of God, 
which is perfect freedom, as St. Augustine says : Deo 
scrvirc rem Ubcrlas est. Moses, the prophets, the apostles 
and all true Christians are called douloi or servants of God 
and Christ, as being entirely and for life, yet voluntarily 
and cheerfully devoted to his service.f St. Paul glories in 
this title, 'I and so does St. Peter, St. James, St. Jude, and 
St. John.§ It would be quite improper in any of these 
passages to substitute slave for servant. 

3) (uidrapodonW means always a slave, especially one en- 
slaved in ivar. This term is degrading in its etymology and 
neuter gender, and is used in the vile and abject sense, 
when the slaves arc statistically enumerated or otherwise 
represented as mere property, or chatties, or things. Now 
it is a remarkable fact, that the New Testament, which so 
frequent! V uses the term doidos and about half a dozen 
words more or less resembling it in meaning, never em- 
ploys the term andrapodon, except once in the derivative 



* AouXoi, he says as quoteil hy Vomel, tiVi KaX ol iihvt'if, xal ttu^kj ol vno-rcray- 
lievot uOT rOf [laai'Xta (all who are subjected to the king). 

f Compare Luke xii. 37 : " Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when 
he comcth shall find watching;" Acts xvi. 17: "These men are the ser- 
vants of the most high God, which show unto us the way of salvation ;" 1 
Pet. ii. IG: "as the servants of God;" Rev. i 1: "to show unto his ser- 
vants ;"" X. 7 : " declared to his servants the prophets ;" xv. 3 : " the song of 
Moses the servant of God;" xix. 5 : " Praise our God, all ye his sei-vants." 

J Rom. i. 1 : "Paul a servant (doulos) of Jesus Christ;" Gal. i. 10 ; Phil, 
i. 1 ; Tit.i 1. 

I 2 Put. i. 1 ; Jas. i. 1. Jude 1: Rev. i. 1. 

II avipavoioi', either from avfip and Trouf, the foot of the conqueror placed on the 
neck of the conquered, to indicate complete suhjugatioD,or from dinp an.i 

inaiia^ai, to ScU a m.in. 



23 

compound, andrapodisies, a man-siealer, or slave-trader, and 
theu in the worst possible company with murderers, whore- 
mongers, liars, perjurers and other gross sinners.* As the 
term is of very frequent occurrence among the classics and 
must haveljeen perfectly familiar to tlie apostles, the omis- 
sion is significant and must imply the condemnation of tho 
idea involved in it. It suggests to us two different concep- 
tions of slavery, the one re23resented by the word doidoSj 
the other by the word andrapodon ; the one prevailing 
among the Jews, the other among the heathen ; the one 
which still regards and treats the slave as a person, the 
other which degrades him to mere property; the one re- 
cognized by the. apostles, the other disowned by them as 
irreconcilable with the spirit of the Gospel. 

Slavery indeed always implies the double relation of 
lordship or government, and of possession or property. 
The former makes the slave-holder simply a ruler and 
patron of his subject, and although liable to abuse, like 
every other kind of power in the hands of sinful and er- 
ring man, may be altogether unselfish, humane and bene- 
ficial, just as an. absolute monarchy may be the best form 
of government in the hands of a good monarch who rules 
in tlie fear of God and Vi'ith a single eye to the happiness of 
his subjects while incapable of self-government. The latter 
makes the slave holder the proprietor or owner of the slave 
and gives him the legal — though not the moral — right to 
turn the doulos into an andrajjodon, the person into a mere 
tiling or " animated tool," and to dispose of him as of any 
other article of merchandize for his own profit. The pre- 
dominance of the oneor the other of these ideas determines 
the character of the institution and tends either to the ele- 



* 1 Tim. i. 10. The Comuiou Version and most eoinmentators translate 
this word mmstcaler , or Icidnapper, who enslaves free persons and sells them, 
— a crime punished with death under the Old Testament, Exod. xxi. 16; 
Deut. xxiv. 7. But some dictionaries assign to avSpaiToiiaTni also the more 
general meaning oi slave-trader, ]\isi as KcpixariaTftg \s, not a moncy-stcalcr, but a 
money-changer (John ii. 14). It is pretty certain that the apostle would have 
embraced all persons engaged in the horrors of the African slave-trade under 
.the same category and condemnation. 



24 

vation, or the degredation of the slave. In the Jewish ser- 
vitude the governmental idea strongly prevailed over the 
ry^:' mercenary; in the Roman, the mercenary over the govern- 
mental. The 'New Testament retains and reco^'nizes the 
governmental idea as an existing fact, and nowhere de- 
nounces it as sinful in itself, hut it divests it of its harsh- 
ness and guards it against abuse, by reminding the master 
of his moral responsibility and inspiring him with kind- 
ness and charity to his slave as a brother in Christ and 
fellow-heir of the same kingdom of glory in heaven. But 
the mercenary idea is entirely ignored in the K"ew Testa- 
ment or indirectly condemned with every other form of 
selfishness. Hence we find not a word about tratfic in 
men, about buying and selling human beings ; the very 
idea is repugnant to the spirit of the Gospel. The slave^ 
without distinction of race and color, is uniformly spoken 
of as a personal being clothed with the same moral rights 
and duties, redeemed by the same blood of Christ, sanctified 
by the same Spirit, and called to the same immortality and 
glory as his master. Wherever the governmental idea holds 
the mercenary so completely in check and yields to the in- 
fluence of Christian morality, it may be a wholesome training 
school for inferior races, as it is in fact with the African 
negroes, until they are capable to govern themselves. 

Christianity attaches comparatively little importance to 
slavery and freedom in the civil and political sense. Its 
mission lies far deeper. It is a new moral creation, which 
commences with the inmost life of humanity, although it 
looks to the resurrection of the body and the glorious lib- 
erty of the children of God as its final consummation. It 
is intensely spiritual in its nature and takes its position far 
above the temporal relations of this world, which is con- 
tinually changing and passing away. \Yholly occupied 
with the eternal interests and welrare of man, it sinks all 
the social distinctions of earth and time in the common 
sinfulness and guilt before God and the common salvation 
through Christ. Rising above the limits of nationality and 
race, it proclaims a universal religion and opens a fountain 



25 

of pardon and peace, wLorc the Jew and the Gentile, tbe 
Greek and the barbarian, the freeman and the slave, on tbe 
single condition of renouncing sin and turning to God, may 
receive the same spiritual and eternal blessings and unite 
in a common brotherhood of faith jmd love. It is so plia- 
ble and applicable, so free and independent in its own ele- 
vated sphere, that it can accommodate itself to every con-, 
dition and can be practised in every calling of life. It re- 
quires no man to give up his occupation after conversion, 
unless it be sinful in its nature ; but remaining in it, he 
should faithfully serve God and honor his profession. If a 
slave can legitimately gain his freedom, so much the better, 
for freedom is the normal condition of man ; but if he can- 
not, he need not be discouraged, for by faith in Christ he 
is a freeman in the highest and best sense of the term, a 
brother and fellow-heir, with his believing master, of eternal 
glory in heaven. Civil bondage may be a great evil, but 
not near as great as the moral bondage of sin ; civil free- 
dom may be a great good, but only temporal at best, 
and not to be compared with the spiritual freedom which 
elevates the humblest Christian slave far above his heathen 
master. All earthly distinctions and blessings vanish into 
utter insignificance when compared with the eternal reali- 
ties of the kingdom of heaven. 

This is clearly the view which St. Paul takes in the fol- 
lowing passages : 

'• There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond [iloulos) nor 
free [cleutheros), there is neither niak"; nor female : for j-e are all cue 
in Christ Jesus." Gal. iii. 28. 

" Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncir- 
curncision. Barbarian, Scythian, bond nryr free : but Christ is all in 
all." Col. iii. 11. 

" For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whetlier v:c 
he Jews or Gentiles, whether loe he bond or free ; and have been all 
made to drink into one Spirit." 1 Cor. xii. 13. 

" Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. 
Art thou called hchig a servant ? care not for it ; but if thou may est 
be made free, use it rather [namely//-<:a/o;?i] .* For he that is called in 

* It is a singular fact that Chrj'sostom, and tlie ancient commentatois, sup- 
ply ioActa, sl'xvcri/, to the verb in the sense: eveii if, or although thou mayest be 



26 

the Lord, leing a servant, is the Lord's freeman : likewise also lie that 
is called, leh^g free, is CJirist's servant. Ye are bought Avith a price : 
be not ye the sei-vants of men. Brethren, let every man, wherein 
he is called, therein abide with God." 1 Cor. vii. 2U-24. 

How widely difterent this position and language of the in- 
spired apostle, who was the greatest benefactor of the slave 
and the most efi'octual, because the wisest emancipationist, 
from that of our modern Abolitionists of the infidel type, 
who secuhirize the holy philanthropy of the Gospel, subor- 
dinate the spiritual relations to the temporal, magnify the 
slavery question above every other moral question, de- 
nounce slavery under every form, in fierce, bitter, fanatical 
language, as. the greatest sin and crime of our age and coun- 
try, and our fed-eral constitution, owing to its connection 
with it, as a " covenant with death and an a2:rcement with 
hell!" 

From this elevated stand-point above the changing and 
passing distinctions of time and sense, the apostles ap- 
proach the master and the servant alike with the same call 
to repent and believe, with the same offer of the gospel 
salvation, requiring the same change of their heart, though 
not of their outward condition, admitting both to the 
Christian Church, inviting them to the same table of the 
Lord, and urging them as church members to a faithful 
discharge of the general Christian duties and of those spe- 
cial duties which grow out of their legal and social relation 
to each other. Take the following exhortations : 

Eph. vi. 5-9 : " Servants [doulol), be obedient to them that are 
your masters [tols Ici/riois) according to the flesh, with fear and tremb- 
ling, in singleness of j'our h-eart, as unto Christ ; not witli eye service 
as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Clirist, doing the will of God 

free, reinniji ratlier a slave in order lo show the more by contrast tlLy spirit- 
ual frcciLtin. But Calvin, Grotins, Whitby, Doddridge, Olshauscn, Neander 
and nearly all modern interpreters (except De Wctte and Meyer) supply 
c\tv5tp(a, freedom, — an exposition already mentioned although not approved 
by Clirysostom, and clearly preferable on account of the verb use, the particles 
but and rather (dWa — ixdWov) and of v. 23 ("be not ye the servants of men*'), 
as well as for internal reasons. For it can not be doubted for a moment 
that Paul, himself a Ilomau citizen, regarded freedom as the normal and far 
j)rcferable state, Avherever it could be legitimately and honorably attained. 



27 

from tiio heart ; witli good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not 
to men : knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the 
.same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. — And 
ye masters [Jcyrioi), do the same things unto them, forbearing threat- 
ening : knowing that your Master also is in heaven ; neither is thei'e 
respect of persons with him." 

Col. iii. 22-25 : " Servants obey in all things your masters accord- 
ing to the flesh ; not with eyeservice as men-pleasers ; but in single- 
ness of heart, fearing God ; and whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as 
to the Lord, and not unto men ; knowing that of the Lord ye shall 
receive the reward of the inheritance : for ye serve the Lord Christ. 
But he that doeth wrong, shall receive for the wrong which he hath 
done : and there is no respect of persons." 

Col. iv. 1 : "Masters, give unto ?/o?<r servants that which is just and 
eciual ; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven." 

1 Tim. vi. 1-2: " Let as n:iany servants as are under the yoke [i. e. 
bond servants] count their own masters worthy of all honor, that tho 
name of God and his doctrine be not blasj^hemed. And they that 
have believing masters, let them not despise ihcm, because they arc 
brethren ; but rather do ihcm service, because they are faithful and 
beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort." 

Tit. ii. 9, 10 : " Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own mas- 
ters, and to please them well in all things [which legitimately belong 
to them in their caj^acity as masters] ; not answering again ; not pur- 
loining, but shewing all good fidelity ; that thej^ may adorn the doc- 
ti'ine of God our Saviour in all things." 

1 Peter ii. 18-20: "Servants [olkeiai, domestic slaves, or household 
servants) he svibject to your masters {tois dcspotais) with all fear ; not 
only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. For this is 
thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suf- 
fering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for 
your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and 
suffer /oj- it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God." 

The sense of all these passages is plain and can not be 
mistaken, except under the influence of the strongest pre- 
judice against slavery under every form. 

First as to the servants, they are nowhere exhorted or 
advised to run away from their masters, however hard 
their condition may have been and no doubt was at the 
time, especially in heathen families, nor to revolt and dis- 
obey, but on the contrary to obey their masters, whether 
heathen or Jewish or Christian, wdiether hard and cruel or 
gentle and kind, in all things belonging to their proper 



28 

authority and uot conflicting with the authority of God 
and the ]aw of conscience, and to obey cheerfully, in the 
fear of God and from a sense of duty, and thus to adorn 
and commend tlioir holy profession; remembering alwoys 
in their outward bondage that they enjoy spiritual freedom 
in Christ which no man could take from them, and that in 
the prospect of everlasting glory in heaven they might 
well forgo the comparatively small advantage of civil free- 
dom in this present transient life. 

vSecondlj^ the masters are nowhere required or even ad- 
vised to emancipate their slaves. This matter, like all 
direct control over private possessions and secular busi- 
ness, the apostles regarded as lying beyond their proper 
authority ; for Christ himself, with His unfailing wisdom, 
refused to be a divider of property, and simply warned the 
contending parties against covetousncss (Luke xii. 14. 
Hence they left it to the free choice of the slaveholders 
and their own sense of duty, which in this case depends 
upon the effects of the measure or the probable benefit 
arising from it to both parties, especially the slave himself. 
Christ never alludes to the subject of emancipation in his 
personal teaching; but if the servant of the gentile centu- 
rion was a slave, as in all probability he was,* we would have 
a strong proof from his own mouth for the perfect compat- 
ibility of slaveholding with a high order of Christian piety; 
for he said of the centurion; " I have not found so great 
faith, no, not in Israel " (Matth. viii. 10 ; Luke vii. 9). 
The apostles expressly denounce men-stealing or — if you 
choose to give the word andraj^odisics this wider sense — 
slave-trading (1 Tim. i. 10) ; but they never enumerate 
slaveholding in any of their catalogues of sins and crimes, 
however complete and minute ;t they nowhere make non- 
slaveholding a term of church membership ; on the contra- 

* In Luko vii. 2 he is called iov\os, (hulos and in Matth. viii. 6 naX?, pais, 
■which is (lie least ignominious fcvni fov slave. It is evident ))otli from Matth. 
viii. 9 and Luke vii. 8, that tlie ceniuiion had many soldiers and servants 
under bis authority. lie -yvas probublj' a proselyte of the gate, or a half 
convert to Judaism, but certainly uncircumcised, and hence lield up to the 
Jews proper as an exanii)le of faith. 

t For instance Rom. i. 29-31 ; Gal. v. 19-21 ; compare Matth. xv. 19 ; 



29 

rj, St. Paul speaks of certain masters of "servants under 
the yoke/' i. e., slaveholders, who are " faithful and belov- 
ed, partakers of the benefit" (1 Tim. vi. 1, 2) ; and addresses 
Philemon, who was a slaveholder at the time, as "a broth- 
er, dearl}'- beloved and fellow-laborer," that is, either an 
officer of the congregation at Colosse, or an active lav- 
member (Philem. v. 1, 7). On the other hand the apostles 
still less recommend the masters to sell their slaves and to 
make money out of them, and by doing so perhaps to sun- 
der the sacred ties between husband and wife, parents and 
children. But they uniformly exhort them to give to tlieir 
slaves all that is just and equitable; to treat them with hu- 
manity, kindness and charity, even as they would like to 
be treated according to the well known maxim of Christ; 
to forbear even threatening, not to mention those cruel 
punishments which the Roman law authorized and which 
were so common at the time; and in this whole relation to re- 
member that they, too, have a Master in heaven, that the 
Christian slaves are freedmen of Christ and their brethren 
by faith, and that God is no respecter of persons. 

The most striking example of the moral reformation which 
the spirit of Christianity carried into the institution of sla- 
very, without interfering with its legal rights, is furnished by 
St. Paul's Epistle to Philemon. The apostle had convert- 
ed the runaway slave Onesimiis at Rome, and although he 
might have made good use of him, he sent him back to his 
rightful master Philemon, yet no longer as a servant or 
slave {doidos) only, "but more than a servant, a brother be- 
loved, especially to me, but now much more unto thee, both 
in the flesh [i. e., in his temporal or earthly relations as a 
servant, compare Eph. vi. 5] and in the Lord" [i. e., his spir- 
itual relation as a Christian brother], adding the request to 
receive him as he would the apostle himself (v. 16, 17).* 
Here we have the whole doctrine and practice of Chris- 
tianity on this subject as in a nut-shelL Paul exhibits in 
this most touching letter the highest type of the Christian 

Mark vii. 21, 22; 1 Cor. v. 11 ; vi. 9, 10; Eph. v. 5 ; Col. iii. 8, 9 ; 1 Tim. i. 
9, 10; 2 Tini. iii. 2, 3, 4. 

* That Ouesimus was a slave, is manifest both from the general tenor of the 



30 

gentleman and philanthropist. He distinctly acknowl- 
edges the legal and social relation as it existed between 
Philemon and Onesimus, and combines the strictest regard 
for the rights of the one with the deepest interest in the 
welfare of the other. He addresses the slaveholder as a 
" brother, dearly beloved and fellow-laborer," and restores 
to hira his servant, but as a Christian brother, pleading for 
him as for his own child, promising reparation if he had 
done wrong, demanding a remission of all penalty, solicit- 
ing the sympathy and affection of the master for the peni- 
tent fugitive, and promising to receive these favors as be- 
stowed upon himself. This is the love of an inspired 
apostle, himself a prisoner at the time, for a poor runaway 
slave ! And yet it is only a spark of that love which in- 
duced the eternal Son of God to shed his own blood for 
the sins of the w^orld. 

If our Southern slaveholders were all animated by this 
heavenly spirit of love and would act on Paul's request to 
Philemon, they would indeed become the greatest bene- 
factors of the unfortunate negro race. 

It is perfectly evident then that Christianity made no di- 
rect and immediate change in the outward legal and social 
relation of slavery ; but wherever it prevailed, it transfused 
a new spirit into the institution, changed the hard Roman 
slavery into a mild patriarchal service and subordinated the 
social distinction of the two parties to the religious equal- 
ity and brotherhood in Christ, their common Lord and Sa- 
viour. It cured the root of the evil and produced a new 
order of society even where the outward form continued 
unchanged. It always works, like leaven, from within, 
and not from without ; it frees the soul first and then the 
body. The opposite process, commencing with external 
and sudden emancipation, would only have done harm and 



Epistle, and the implication in ovk en wf i^op\oy, no more as a slave, v. IG, and 
19 universally conceded by all ancient and modern commentators of any note. 
It was left for Mr Albert Barnes, in the nineteenth century, to make the great 
discovery that Onesimus mai/ have been an approitice, because " it is quite as 
eoramon for apprentices to run away, as it is for slaves !" Legendary tradi- 
tion relates, that he was afterwards set free by Philemon and became a 
Christian bishop of Bcroca in Macedonia. 



31 

involved master and slave in common ruin, before the true 
spiritual remedy could have been applied. 

The external extinction of slavery, we all know, was the 
slow process of centuries and is not yet completed to this 
day. It still exists under various forms over a great part 
of the Christian world. Nevertheless the progress is steady 
and irresistible. Wherever the spirit of Christianity, whicli 
is the spirit of universal justice and love, works its way 
into the fibres of domestic and public life, it inevitably 
raises the intellectual and moral condition of the slave pop- 
ulation, and thus prepares them for the right use of a high- 
er social position, so that in due time, all other interests of 
civilization concurring, the legal emancipation becomes 
notonly practicable and harmless, but desirable and beneti.- 
cial to both parties. In this gradual, peaceful and right- 
eous way Christianity mastered the Jewish, Greek, and 
Roman slavery of ancient times; it then modified and con- 
quered the various forms of bondage and vassalage among, 
the Romanic and Germanic nations of the middle ages ; it 
is now assisting in the gradual emancipation of the twenty- 
two millions ofserfs in Russia; audit will no doubt in its own. 
good way and time solve also the diflBcult problem of Af- 
rican servitude in America for the common benefit of the 
white and the black races, which are here mysteriously and 
providentially brought together. 

Of all forms of slavery the American is the most difficult 
to dispose of, because it is not only a question of domestic 
institution and political oeconomy, but of race. The negro 
question lies far deeper than the slavery question. Emancipa- 
tion here is no Bokition.. The negro question was never 
presented in such magnitude and with such responsibility 
to any other people ; for England and France had to do 
with it only in their distant colonies, and instead of solv- 
ing the problem by immediate and absolute emancipation, 
they have ruined their colonies and presented the question 
of race in a more difficult form. Should we then not have 
patience and forbearance and wait the time which Provi- 
dence in its own wisdom and mercy has appointed for the 
solution of a problem which thus far has baffled the wis- 
dom of the wisest statesmen. But the process of solution 



32 

has niidoubtcdly begun long siuce. We should never un- 
gratefully forget, amidst nil the exciting passions, crimiuR- 
tions and recriminations of political parties, that in the 
hands of Providence and under the genial influence of 
Christianity this American. slavery in spite of all its inci- 
dental evils and abuses has already accomplished much 
good. It has been thus far a wholesome training school 
for the negro from the lowest state of heathenism and bar- 
barism to some degree of Christian civilization, and in its 
ultimate result it will no doubt prove an immense blessing 
to the whole race of Ham. 

The less the people in the iSTorth meddle with the system 
in the way of political agitation and uncharitable abuse, 
the sooner this desirable end, so dear to every Christian 
and patriotic heart, will be reached. The sooner we take 
the vexing and perplexing question out of the turmoil of 
federal politics, and leave it with the several slave States, 
in the hands of Christian philanthrophy, and of an all-wise 
Providence, the better for the peace of the whole country. 

In the mean time it is the duty of the slaveholding 
States, on whom the whole responsibility and legislative 
authority properly devolves, not, indeed, to precipitate the 
four millions of negroes into a state of independence for 
which they are wholly unprepared and which could only 
be disastrous to them, but by separate State action and 
remedial codes to diminish as much as possible the evils 
and to prevent the abuses of slavery in their own midst, to 
provide for the proper moral and religious training of the 
negroes committed to their care, and thus to make the in- 
stitution beneficial to both races while it lasts, and to pre- 
pare the way for its ultimate extinction without injury 
to either. In this noble effort the people of the South em- 
inently deserve the hearty sympathy, the friendly counsel, 
and the liberal cooperation of their brethren in the North. 

This is the Bible view and the Bible remedy of slavery. 
It is as true and effective to day as ever. On this basis 
alone can peace be restored, the Union preserved, and the 
greatest modern problem of political ccconomy and Chris- 
tian philanthropy solved for the good of America, of Afri- 
ca and the world. 

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